DML:Silblades and Flowkooler

From: Rick Barnes (barnesrv@attbi.com)
Date: Thu Nov 07 2002 - 14:38:59 EST


Hey DMLers..just some recent stuff..

I sure miss Bernd posting here. I guess some of us pissed him off
enough that he won't comeback or at least comment here for a
while..Bernd, I hope you do return though.

I bought a set of those Silblades that some of you mentioned you have,
awesome product.

About 6 months ago, I purchased a Flowkooler water pump from Bernd, (by
the way NONE of this is any reflection on him, he only sells them). I
also purchased one of the high perf thermostats, all hoses...etc. Since
my 98 5.2 had about 80k miles on it, I felt it was due for a change of
all this stuff before it gave up. My Dak did not overheat or leak
before I did any of this. So, I changed out all my hoses, water pump,
and thermostat.

Some of you may remember that I complained that after installing all
this, my truck ran hotter and even attempted to overheat, which had
never happened before. Bernd told me he would contact Flowkooler to ask
them, but I am sure he got busy and in my opinion, there was little they
would have told him anyway, though I never heard from him about it.

So, speed ahead to now, about 4 months later. Two days ago I noticed a
puddle of antifreeze under my truck. After digging around, turns out,
it was the new Flowkooler water pump leaking at the seal behind the
pulley. I wound up pulling the Flowkooler back off and replacing it
with a standard water pump. I also, once again, replaced the thermostat
with a Stant 180. No more problems. I will be sending the Flowkooler
back to the manufacturer, (not Bernd, this is not his fault at all) to
see how they respond. By the way, I don't even use a clutch fan, I have
a BM on mine so there was little strain on this water pump.

As I have now looked over the Flowkooler, I think it is odd the way the
impeller is shaped and supposed to be superior. The impeller blades
have a plate and are much smaller than a standard water pump. I believe
that my Flowkooler did not move the water even as well as a standard
pump as the blade surface is significantly smaller than standard. I do
not understand how this is supposed to move much more water and thus
cool better. It certainly did not do the job on my 5.2 as well as a
stock water pump.

I am only writing this for information. I do not in any way mean
criticism of Bernd or Speedtweaks as this is beyond their
responsibility, but if you are reading this Bernd, you may want to
reconsider this pump at least for a 5.2, it just is not superior to
stock.

That is just my two cents for today.

Rascal



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